


To Save a Lost Life

by Riyazura



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Breath of the Wild Sequel Trailer, Fantasy, Gen, Magic, Mystery, One Shot, Sequel Theory, Spooky, Suspense, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:42:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24645847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riyazura/pseuds/Riyazura
Summary: A Breath of the Wild 2 one-shot taking place right after where the E3 2019 trailer leaves off. A lost life, a resurrection, and the burden of a seal. These grievances Link must all come to terms with as he is left alone following Ganondorf's kidnapping of Zelda.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	To Save a Lost Life

Link stared down into the gaping black hole which had just earlier been Ganondorf's altar.

It had severed in the middle, with Zelda and Ganondorf on the other side. He had jumped in after her in blind refusal to leave her behind once more, but the green and gold sealing hand snatched him away and placed him back on solid ground again.

 _Not fair,_ he chastised himself with a surge of fury rising in his chest, his fingers curled into claws at the altar's edge. _She's trapped all over again, and yet again I couldn't protect her._

_"It wasn't your fault, courageous one."_

Link's heart leaped in his throat and he whipped his head to both sides—was that a voice calling to him from the recesses of his own _mind?_

 _"Calm down; yes, I am a being whose voice now resonates within you,"_ that same voice said. It sounded old, ancient, but not at all in a way that was fragile. It was also deeply masculine while having a majestic lilt at the same time. _"Look at your right hand."_

Link's eyes wandered to his hand still wrapped around the outside of the pale broken tile, and at that moment despite the oppressive darkness of the cavern enshrouding him, he realized that his glove and bracer were gone, leaving the entirety of his forearm bare. It seemed as though they had fizzled away entirely by the being when it entered him, because what remained of his sleeve was strangely singed at the elbow, and his fingertips that were originally exposed upon the being's touch were pink and stinging hot to the touch.

 _That's right,_ the boy mused to himself, kneeled away from the side of the altar with his other hand against his mouth in silent horror. _Just as Zelda fell, I was overwhelmed by the seal's power entering me. The seal..._

"Who are you?" Link asked quietly. His voice echoed across the high ceilings of the cave, clambering across its rough damp walls that stretched above and below. "If you can speak to me, then surely you must have been someone important."

 _"That's something I_ would _like to disclose to you, but I'm afraid I'll have to wait for the sake of our safety. Stand up, boy; we should get along and plan out our next line of action. I'll explain on the way."_

The knight obliged to the ancient voice's orders, rising to his feet and trudging cautiously through the rubble of the room. Once he tripped over an undetectable piece of stone, however, but managed to stay rooted.

That sudden misstep brought forth a rush of anxiousness to Link; _If I couldn't see that, then what's to say I won't step onto some other unstable ground?_

The voice of the seal rose once more from the curtains of his mind; _"Don't be alarmed by what you are about to see. It is not a curse, but a blessing."_

What sensation manifested in Link's hand next was one of peculiarity—a sensation of pins and needles ricocheting from his arm up to his fingers, until at last a whitish-teal light unveiled itself from the center of his palm, stretching outwards to each of his fingers.

Link immediately recoiled away from it, nearly losing his balance again on the uneven ground that was now illuminated by the glow of his hand. "What is this!?" He yelped, his exclamation warped by incredulous surprise. Then he thought harder.

"No, wait," he continued, staring into his green-silhouetted hand with intrigue, as though doing so would uncover all of its mysteries. "Before I fainted, this same thing happened..."

 _"That's true,"_ the ancient voice admitted. _"My seal holding the Demon King prisoner was weakening, and I feared I would disappear before my magic could, by some miracle, be rejuvenated. But then, not far away, I sensed the Owl of Wisdom, and more importantly, the Dragon of Courage. It was then that I knew I would be saved."_

 _It must be talking about Zelda and me,_ Link pieced together. _Wisdom, courage; Zelda, and me..._

The seal continued, _"That was when the Demon King awoke from his slumber I'd cast upon him millenia ago. He too could sense the both of you. He was responsible for making the altar collapse as it did. He tried to separate you both, and he succeeded."_

 _And now Zelda is all alone with him, at his mercy,_ Link was glumly reminded with a sting of guilt pricking at his conscience. "How do you know that? Can you secretly read his intentions?" he inquired instead as he began climbing through the rubble again. He hoped the seal couldn't detect the lightness of his voice because of the tendrils of remorse insisting to wring his heart.

 _"Well, how do I put it... Obviously, his intentions aren't_ good, _and I suppose you could always extrapolate the fact that he tried to separate you, but_ I _know for certain."_

"Why is that?"

_"That is because, for all this time I have spent containing the Gerudo King, my soul was intertwined with his."_

Link slid clumsily to a stop, frozen in abject unease. He stared with wide eyes at nothing in front of him.

 _"Is something wrong?"_ The seal asked him, seemingly nonchalant, in the muted lifelessness of the underground.

_You say it's a blessing, but how could it be if it had been directly connected to the most calamitous curse ever wrought upon this realm?_

Link moaned longingly, and with his arms wrapped around himself, sank to the floor. He saw that everything was mostly dark again with the obscuration of his blessed—or was it cursed?—right hand before screwing his eyes shut. _'Is something wrong,' you ask? What do you think?_ he wanted to jeer ruefully at the ancient voice in his head.

"I feel like I've lost everything all over again," the boy explained monotonously as he hung his head. "That 'Owl of Wisdom' you speak of, Zelda... she was my companion. She waited for more than a century to be reunited with me. And now I don't even know if she is okay down there, or even if she's okay _at all_ —she could be dead, and it'd be all my fault because I didn't do what I was supposed to do and shield her life! And now the Calamity's true form has resurrected again, and I'm the bearer of his seal!"

 _"Don't blame yourself, my child. If anything, it was I who was responsible for all of this, and I would willingly take any and all responsibility for what may have befallen her."_ The voice's tone was soft, lacking its low grittiness with the new solemnity.

"That..." Link's hands fell limply into his lap. He studied his green one with a scowl. Its edge, just along the end of his forearm, was enveloped in a swirl of ethereal light coming off it in waves and ribbons closely knit to his skin, as if it couldn't decide whether his hand was nonexistent, a spirit's, or if it were still his own. "That doesn't change the reality of it all."

 _"I suppose you're right."_ The voice started off gruffly, but seemed to remind itself to empathize before finishing. _"If it gives you any solace,"_ it added, _"I want you to understand that there is still much you don't know yet. You will adjust in time. You will learn when you are ready,_ orê hakuryü."

And with that, it remained silent and unspeaking, even as Link stayed there in defeated contemplation, and even as he rose to continue traversing gloomily onwards.

He didn't know how long it had taken them to reach Zelda's and his beast all the way back at the mining tracks. All he knew was that his new acquaintance had been respectful enough to stay quiet and to keep their path lit, channeling its energy into Link's hand without inconsistency.

When Link reached the cavern where they left the beast, he saw that the bridge had remained mostly intact as it had been before they left, but it was more cracked, and he decided there would be areas upon leaping back to the other side that he would avoid.

After he did leap over, reaching their beast who cowered in the dim light of the incredibly spacious luminous stone-lit cavern, he spoke gently in greeting. "Here, girl," he murmured, lifting his uncursed hand to stroke the broad bridge of her nose. "It's just me. I'm sorry we had to leave you back here; it must've been scary for you when the earthquake first hit. You're so loyal to have stayed put here after all that happened..."

The beast huffed out of her nostrils, relaxing enough to lean into his touch willingly; she already forgave him. She lifted a chuckle out of him when she tried to fit her nose in-between his arm and his side, but then he realized with a pang that she was probably sniffing him out to search for Zelda, who would quite possibly never come back.

He hummed pensively before croaking out, "I'm sorry, girl, Z—Zelda isn't c—coming back..."

When the beast let out an inquiring moan, tears filled his eyes, and he couldn't suppress the need to bury his face in the wide bridge of her nose. It was then that he finally allowed himself a moment of emotion, letting those tears flow forth, and he sobbed out all the grievances of the past day—a lost life, a resurrection, and the burden of a seal.

"We're going to have to fight to get her back," Link affirmed when his grief was finally spent. "I'll accomplish any task all over again if it means we win and Ganon loses—especially when it's Zelda's life at stake."

The voice of the seal finally spoke once more: _"Truer words have never been spoken, Hero. Let's get a move on, and we can figure out how to make that a reality."_

**Author's Note:**

> Again, like my other BotW2 one-shot, this story doesn't reflect exactly what I think will happen in BotW2; I just wanted to write something for it since I was feeling antsy for news at the time, and this was what came out of that. I hope you liked the end result, and thank you for reading!


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